Method and system for providing query using an image

ABSTRACT

A method and system for providing a query using an image is disclosed. A search keyword is determined using an image and position information of a terminal that are received from the terminal. Search queries associated with the determined search keyword are provided to the terminal. Lower search queries may be provided to the terminal if one of the provided search queries is selected.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/085,844, filed on Apr. 13, 2011, and claims priority from and thebenefit of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2010-0034444, filed on Apr.14, 2010, all of which are hereby incorporated by reference for allpurposes as if fully set forth herein.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Invention

Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to a system andmethod for providing a query, and in particular, to a method and systemfor providing a query that may provide search services using an image.

Discussion of the Background

Due to development of the Internet and an increase in distribution ofthe Internet, various services using the Internet are provided. Anexample of the various services is a search service that provides, to auser, retrieval results corresponding to an input query after retrievinginformation with respect to the query input from the user.

For example, when a query is input by a user using a terminal, a website, news, or a file name corresponding to the input query may beprovided to the user. Various devices such as, for example, a terminal,computer, notebook, mobile phone, Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB)phone, web book, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), and the like, may beused to input the query and display the query results.

In the case of the conventional search services, a search query may beinput through the terminal in a text format.

However, a search service is difficult to provide if the user hasdifficulty entering text into a terminal. For example, when a textsignal inputted to a keypad of the terminal is erased, or text isdifficult to input due to a user handicap that affects the user's hands,a desired query can not be input by the user, and thereby an appropriatesearch service can not be provided.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Exemplary embodiments of the present invention provide a system andmethod for supporting a query that provides a search query using animage.

Additional features of the invention will be set forth in thedescription which follows, and in part will be apparent from thedescription, or may be learned by practice of the invention.

Exemplary embodiments of the present invention disclose a method forproviding is a query. The method includes receiving at least one imageand receiving position information of a terminal. The method furtherincludes determining a search keyword based on the received image andthe received position information of the terminal, and providing atleast one search query associated with the determined search keyword.

Exemplary embodiments of the present invention also disclose a system toprovide a query. The system includes an image receiving unit, a searchkeyword determination unit, and a query providing unit. The imagereceiving unit receives at least one image and position information of aterminal. The search keyword determination unit determines at least onesearch keyword based on the received at least one image and the receivedposition information of the terminal. The query providing unit providesat least one search query associated with the determined at least onesearch keyword.

Exemplary embodiments of the present invention also disclose a methodfor providing a query of a terminal. The method includes transmitting animage and position information, receiving at least one search querybased on the transmitted image and the position information, anddisplaying the received at least one search query. The at least onesearch query is determined using a tag of the transmitted image thatmatches a tag of an image among images uploaded from terminalspositioned within a reference distance of the terminal.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description andthe following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and areintended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further isunderstanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute apart of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention, andtogether with the description serve to explain the principles of theinvention.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a system for providing a query according toexemplary embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an image used in a method for providing a search queryaccording to exemplary embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a method for providing a queryaccording to exemplary embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a system for providing a query according toexemplary embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a method for providing a queryaccording to exemplary embodiments of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE ILLUSTRATED EMBODIMENTS

The invention is described more fully hereinafter with reference to theaccompanying drawings, in which exemplary embodiments of the inventionare shown. This invention may, however, be embodied in many differentforms and should not be construed as limited to the exemplaryembodiments set forth herein. Rather, these exemplary embodiments areprovided so that this disclosure is thorough, and will fully convey thescope of the invention to those skilled in the art. In the drawings, thesize and relative sizes of layers and regions may be exaggerated forclarity. Like reference numerals in the drawings denote like elements.

It will be understood that when an element is referred to as being“connected to” is another element, it can be directly connected to theother element, or intervening elements may be present. In contrast, whenan element is referred to as being “directly on” or “directly connectedto” another element or layer, there are no intervening elements orlayers present.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particularembodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. Asused herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended toinclude the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicatesotherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises”and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify thepresence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements,and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of oneor more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements,components, and/or groups thereof.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a system 100 for providing a queryaccording to exemplary embodiments of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, the system 100 for providing the query may includean image receiving unit 110, a search keyword determination unit 120,and a query providing unit 130.

The image receiving unit 110 may receive an image and positioninformation of the terminal from the terminal.

In some cases, the image receiving unit 110 may receive an image storedin the terminal or an image acquired using a camera of the terminal. Ingeneral, an image may be obtained through any suitable means andprovided to the image receiving unit 110 by the terminal. The imagereceiving unit 110 may also receive, from the terminal, positioninformation including position coordinates of the terminal. For example,Global Positioning System (GPS) information may be used to provide thelocation and coordinates of the terminal. In general, any suitable meansmay be used to provide position information to the image receiving unit110.

The search keyword determination unit 120 may determine at least onesearch keyword using the received image and position information of theterminal. The search keyword determination unit 120 includes an imageacquisition unit 121, a document acquisition unit 122, a detection unit123, and a determination unit 124.

The image acquisition unit 121 may acquire, from the terminal, imagesthat are uploaded from other terminals positioned within a predeterminedreference distance of the received position of the terminal.

For example, if the reference distance is predetermined to be 1 km, theimage acquisition unit 121 may acquire images that are uploaded fromterminals positioned within a 1 km radius of the terminal's position.

The document acquisition unit 122 may acquire documents that areuploaded from terminals positioned within the reference distance of theterminal's position.

For example, when the reference distance is predetermined to be 1 km,the document acquisition unit 121 may acquire documents that areuploaded from terminals positioned within a 1 km radius of theterminal's position. The documents may include, but are not limited to,texts or messages. For example, the messages may include Short MessageService (SMS), Long Message Service (LMS), and Multimedia MessageService (MMS). The messages may be uploaded using a text servicefunction of a mobile terminal using various applications. Images may beuploaded using MMS. In general, various methods and techniques may beutilized to upload images and/or documents from terminals positionedwithin the reference distance of the terminal's position.

The detection unit 123 may match an image of the received images with animage among the acquired images by comparing the acquired images and thereceived images. Various algorithms and programs may be used to match areceived image to an acquired image.

The determination unit 124 may determine a search keyword using a tag ofthe matched image and the acquired documents. A tag of the matched imagemay include keywords such as a capture date of the image, a photographerof the image, a subject of the image, or a photographed location of theimage. The determination unit 124 may detect, from the acquireddocuments, common keywords such as ‘Gang-Nam’, ‘bus’, ‘coffee’,‘Bang-Bang intersection’, ‘Seoul National University of Education’,‘map’, or ‘Gang-Nam Kyo-Bo book store’.

The determination unit 124 may determine a common keyword to be a searchkeyword, in part, by comparing the detected common keywords in theacquired documents with the keywords included in the tag of a matchedimage. For example, if a subject of an acquired document is informationon popular restaurants, and the location of the matched image isGang-Nam station exit 5, the determination unit 124 may determine‘Gang-Nam’ as the search keyword.

Next, the query providing unit 130 may provide, to the terminal, atleast one search query associated with the determined search keyword.

For example, when the search keyword is determined as ‘Gang-Nam’, thequery providing unit 130 may provide, to the terminal, search queriessuch as ‘popular restaurants in Gang-Nam station’, ‘Gang-Nam station busroute’, ‘Gang-Nam station map’, and/or ‘Gang-Nam station exit 5’.

In some cases, if the search keyword is determined as ‘Gang-Nam Kyo-Bobook store’, the query providing unit 130 may provide, to the terminal,search queries such as, for example, ‘find book cover’ or ‘book priceinformation’, which are associated with ‘Gang-Nam Kyo-Bo book store’. Insome cases, by having knowledge of the terminal's location using GPSinformation, the query providing unit 130 may reduce a search scope ofthe search query using, for example, an image to thereby more rapidlyprovide search services.

The query providing unit 130 may provide, to the terminal, real-timerush search queries corresponding to the determined search keyword. Forexample, when ‘Gang-Nam’ is determined as the search keyword, the queryproviding unit 130 may provide, to the terminal, within a predeterminedperiod of time, popular search queries from among the real-time rushsearch queries in association with ‘Gang-Nam’ and search queriesassociated with ‘Gang-Nam station’.

When a search query is selected from the terminal, the query providingunit 130 may also provide, to the terminal, lower search queries of theselected search queries.

For example, when the selected search query is ‘popular restaurants inGang-Nam station’, the query providing unit 130 may provide, to theterminal, lower search queries such as, for example, ‘Gang-Nam stationHan-Jeong-Sik’ or ‘Gang-Nam station snack bar’.

In addition, when a received image is not matched with an acquiredimage, the determination unit 124 may detect common keywords from theacquired documents, and determine the search keyword using only thedetected common keywords from the acquired documents.

For example, when the common keywords of acquired documents are detectedas ‘Gang-Nam’, ‘Bus’, and ‘Coffee’, the determination unit 124 may counta number of acquired documents having ‘Gang-Nam’ as a keyword. Next, thedetermination unit 124 may respectively count a number of the acquireddocuments having ‘Bus’ as a keyword, and a number of acquired isdocuments having ‘Coffee’ as a keyword.

The determination unit 124 may determine, as the search keyword, thecommon keyword having the highest counted number of the documents.

For example, when the number of documents having ‘Gang-Nam’, ‘Bus’, and‘Coffee’ as a keyword is 10, 5, and 3, respectively, the determinationunit 124 may determine ‘Gang-Nam’ as the search keyword. Next, the queryproviding unit 130 may provide, to the terminal, at least one searchquery associated with the determined ‘Gang-Nam’.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a method for providing a queryaccording to exemplary embodiments of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 3, the image receiving unit 110 may receive positioninformation of a terminal and an image (310).

For example, the image receiving unit 110 may receive an image obtainedby a camera of the terminal or an image stored in the terminal, and GPSinformation may be used to provide the position information of theterminal. GPS information may include current position coordinates ofthe terminal. For example, the GPS may provide the latitude andlongitude at which the terminal is located.

Subsequently, the image acquisition unit 121 may acquire images that areuploaded from terminals positioned within a predetermined referencedistance of the terminal's location (320).

Next, the document acquisition unit 122 may acquire documents that areuploaded from the terminals positioned within the predeterminedreference distance of the terminal's location (330). The documents mayinclude, but are not limited to, text and other messages.

The detection unit 123 may then match a received image with an acquiredimage (340).

For example, the detection unit 123 may detect a received image in whicha pixel or a pixel disposition of the received image matches acorresponding element (e.g., pixel or pixel disposition) in the acquiredimage by, for example, 90% or more. It should be appreciated that amatching threshold of matching images may be predefined and/or may vary.For example, the pixel or pixel dispositions may match, in some cases,up to 80% or more and in some cases up to 95% or more.

Next, the determination unit 124 may determine a common keyword from atag of the matched image and/or from the acquired documents, and maydetermine the detected common keyword as a search keyword (350). The tagof the image may include keywords such as, but not limited to, a capturedate of the image, a photographer of the image, a subject, and aphotographed location of the image.

For example, the determination unit 124 may determine common keywordsfrom the acquired documents, and may determine, as the search keyword,keywords included in the tag of a matched image and in the acquireddocuments.

Subsequently, the query providing unit 130 may provide, to the terminal,search queries associated with the determined search keyword (360).

The terminal may receive the search queries, and may display thereceived search queries on a display. A user of the terminal maysubsequently select at least one of the displayed search queries. Theterminal may then transmit, to the system 100, the selected searchquery. The terminal may include an input unit through which the user mayselect a search query. The input unit may be a touch interface, akeyboard, a mouse, a microphone, and may, in general, be any suitablemeans of obtaining a selection of a search query from the user.

When a terminal obtains its position information, the query providingunit 130 may determine a search scope of the search query associatedwith the determined search keyword and the position information of theterminal. At least one search query associated with the search keyworddetermined within the determined search scope may then be provided. Ingeneral, various other means may also be utilized to modify the searchscope of a search query.

For example, when the search keyword is determined as ‘Gang-Nam Kyo-Bobook store’, the query providing unit 130 may limit the search scope to‘book’, and provide, to the terminal, search queries such as, forexample, ‘find book cover’ or ‘book price information’ associated with‘Gang-Nam Kyo-Bo book store’ within the limited search scope.

The query providing unit 130 may also provide, to the terminal,real-time rush search queries corresponding to the determined searchkeyword.

The query providing unit 130 may also provide, to the terminal, lowersearch queries of the selected search query. For example, when theselected search query is ‘popular restaurants in Gang-Nam station’, thequery providing unit 130 may provide, to the terminal, the lower searchqueries such as, for example, ‘Gang-Nam station spaghetti’, ‘Gang-Namstation Han-Jeong-Sik’, or ‘Gang-Nam station snack bar’.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a system 400 for providing a queryaccording to exemplary embodiments of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 4, the system 400 for providing the query includes animage receiving unit 410, an image detection unit 420, a search keyworddetermination unit 430, and a query providing unit 440.

The image receiving unit 410 may receive an image from a terminal. Forexample, the image receiving unit 410 may receive an image obtained by acamera of the is terminal or an image stored in the terminal.

The image detection unit 420 may compare the images received by theimage receiving unit 410 and images that have already been stored in thesystem 400. Next, the image detection unit 420 may detect a stored imagethat matches a received image by more than a predetermined referencethreshold.

For example, when the reference threshold is 90%, the image detectionunit 420 may detect a stored image that matches a received image by atleast 90%. In some cases, the image detection unit 420 may detect thematched image by comparing a degree by which images uploaded from otherplurality of terminal devices match stored images of the terminalregardless of a location of the terminal. It should be appreciated thatthe reference threshold may vary and may be set to any suitable value.For example, in some cases, the reference threshold may be 80% or moreand in some cases, 95% or more.

In some cases, the search keyword determination unit 430 may determinethe search keyword using the detected image. The search keyworddetermination unit 430 includes a determination unit 430, a documentacquisition unit 432, a common keyword detection unit 433, and acounting unit 434.

When a stored image matched with the received image is detected, thedetermination unit 431 may determine the search keyword using a tag ofthe detected image. For example, the tag of the image may includekeywords such as, but not limited to, a capture date of the image, aphotographer of the image, a subject of the image, a photographedlocation of the image.

When a matching image is not detected, the document acquisition unit 432may receive position information of the terminal from the terminal.Next, the document acquisition is unit 432 may acquire documentsuploaded from other terminals positioned within a predeterminedreference distance of the terminal.

Next, the common keyword detection unit 433 may detect common keywordsof the acquired documents.

For example, the common keyword detection unit 433 may detect commonkeywords having more than a predetermined reference number of timescorresponding to detections in the acquired documents by comparing theacquired documents. For example, when 100 documents are acquired, andthe reference number of times is 5, the common keyword detection unit433 may detect keywords that are commonly detected more than five timesin each of the one hundred documents.

The counting unit 434 may count a number of documents including thecommon keywords with respect to the detected common keywords.

For example, when ‘Gang-Nam’, ‘Bus’, and ‘Coffee’ are detected as thecommon keywords, the counting unit 434 may count the number of documentsincluding ‘Gang-Nam’, ‘Bus’, and ‘Coffee’ as having, for example, 10, 5,and 3, occurrences each, respectively, in the one hundred acquireddocuments.

Next, the counting unit 431 may determine a common keyword having thehighest count in the acquired documents as the search keyword. Forexample, ‘Gang-Nam’ may be determined as the search keyword since‘Gang-Nam’ has the highest count (e.g., 10) in the acquired documents.

When a matched image is not detected, the determination unit 431 maydetermine the search keyword using only the acquired documents.

The query providing unit 440 may provide, to the terminal, searchqueries is associated with the determined search keyword. Next, theterminal may display the search queries on a display. A user maysubsequently select at least one of the displayed search queries. Theterminal may then transmit, to the system 400, the selected searchquery. The terminal may include an input unit through which the user mayselect a search query. The input unit may be a touch interface, akeyboard, a mouse, a microphone, and may, in general, be any suitablemeans of obtaining a selection of a search query from the user.

Next, the query providing unit 440 may provide, to the terminal, lowersearch queries of the selected search query.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a method for providing a queryaccording to exemplary embodiments of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 5, the image receiving unit 410 may receive, from aterminal, an image used for providing a search query (510). The imagereceiving unit 410 may receive, as illustrated in FIG. 2, an imageobtained by a camera of the terminal or an image stored in the terminal.

The image detection unit 420 may detect a stored image that matches areceived image. For example, the image detection unit 420 may detect astored image that matches a received image by more than a predeterminedreference threshold.

If a stored image matched with the received image is detected (520), thedetermination unit 431 may determine a search keyword using a tag of thedetected image (530).

If a matching image is not detected (520), the document acquisition unit432 may receive position information of the terminal (550).

After receiving position information of the terminal, the documentacquisition unit 432 acquires documents uploaded from other terminalspositioned within a predetermined is reference distance from theterminal (560).

Next, the common keyword detection unit 433 may detect common keywordsin the acquired documents (570).

In some cases, the common keyword detection unit 433 may detect keywordscommon in all of the acquired documents, and, in some cases, may detectkeywords common in at least a predetermined reference number of theacquired documents.

For example, when a number of the acquired documents is 100, and thekeywords common in all of the acquired documents are detected, thecommon keyword detection unit 433 may detect common keywords in all onehundred documents.

In some cases, if the number of the acquired documents is 100 and thereference number is 50, and keywords common to acquired documents ofmore than the reference number are detected, the common keyworddetection unit 433 may detect, as the common keywords, keywords beingdetected in the acquired documents more than 50 times.

Next, the counting unit 434 may count a number of documents includingthe common keyword for each of the detected common keywords (580).

For example, when ‘Gang-Nam’, ‘Bus’, and ‘Coffee’ are detected as thecommon keywords in operation 570, the counting unit 434 may count thenumber of documents of the one hundred acquired documents that include akeyword, (e.g., ‘Gang-Nam’). Also, the counting unit 434 mayrespectively count the number of documents including ‘Bus’ and ‘Coffee’.

Next, the determination unit 431 may determine, as the search keyword, akeyword in which the counted number of documents is the highest (590).

For example, when the number of documents including ‘Gang-Nam’, ‘Bus’,and ‘Coffee’ is counted as 10, 5, and 3, respectively, the determinationunit 431 may determine ‘Gang-Nam’ as the search keyword.

The query providing unit 440 may provide, to the terminal, a searchquery associated with the determined search keyword (540).

For example, the query providing unit 440 may provide, as the searchqueries, ‘popular restaurants in Gang-Nam station’, ‘Gang-Nam stationbus route’, or ‘Gang-Nam station map’. Next, the search queries such as‘popular restaurants in Gang-Nam station’, ‘Gang-Nam station bus route’,‘Gang-Nam station map’, and the like may be displayed on a display ofthe terminal. Next, the terminal may transmit, to the system 400 forproviding the query, a search query selected by a user. The queryproviding unit 440 may then provide, to the terminal, a lower searchquery corresponding to the selected search query.

For example, when ‘popular restaurants in Gang-Nam station’ is selected,the query providing unit 440 may provide, to the terminal, ‘Gang-Namspaghetti’, ‘Gang-Nam station Han-Jeong-Sik’, ‘Gang-Nam station coffee’,or ‘Gang-Nam station bakery’ as the lower search queries. Next, thelower search queries may be displayed on the terminal.

In addition, when ‘Gang-Nam’ is determined as the search keyword in(590), the query providing unit 440 may provide, to the terminal,real-time rush search queries that are uploaded in association with‘Gang-Nam’.

For example, the query providing unit 440 may provide, to the terminal,the real-m time rush search queries associated with ‘Gang-Nam station’,or popular search queries within a predetermined period of time among‘Gang-Nam station’-related search queries.

As described above, the system and method for providing the queryaccording to exemplary embodiments described with reference to FIGS. 4and 5 may determine the search scope of the search query associated withthe determined search keyword using the received image. For example,when the position information of the terminal is known, the queryproviding unit 440 may determine the search scope of the search queryassociated with the determined search keyword using the received imageand terminal position. At least one search query associated with thedetermined search keyword within the determined search scope may beprovided.

As described above, the position information of the terminal may bereceived from the terminal; however, this is merely an example. Thus,the system 100/400 for providing the query may generate the positioninformation including position coordinates of the terminal using anysuitable technique including, for example, a triangulation technique.

Exemplary embodiments of the present invention may be recorded in anon-transitory computer-readable medium including program instructionsto implement the exemplary embodiments of the present invention. Themedia may also include, alone or in combination with the programinstructions, data files, data structures, and the like. The media andprogram instructions may be those specially designed and constructed forthe purposes of the present invention, or they may be of the kindwell-known and available to those having skill in the computer softwarearts. Examples of non-transitory computer-readable media includemagnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks, and magnetic tape;optical media such as CD ROM disks and DVD; magneto-optical media suchas optical disks; and hardware devices that are specially configured tostore and perform program instructions, such as read-only memory (ROM),random access memory (RAM), flash memory, and the like. Examples ofprogram instructions include both machine code, such as produced by acompiler, and files containing higher level code that may be executed bythe computer using an interpreter. The described hardware devices may beconfigured to act as one or more software modules in order to perform isthe operations of the above-described embodiments of the presentinvention.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that variousmodifications and variation can be made in the present invention withoutdeparting from the spirit or scope of the invention. Thus, it isintended that the present invention cover the modifications andvariations of this invention provided they come within the scope of theappended claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method, using a processor, for providing asearch query, the method comprising: receiving at least one image from auser terminal; comparing the at least one image with a plurality ofstored images; determining whether there is a match between the receivedimage and at least one of the plurality of stored images; determining asearch keyword when the match is detected between the received image andat least one of the plurality of stored images based on the matchdetermination; receiving location information of the user terminal whenno match is detected between the received image and one of the pluralityof stored images after the match determination; acquiring textualdocuments uploaded by users of other terminals located within areference distance from the user terminal based on the received locationinformation; detecting keywords commonly appearing at least apredetermined number of times in each of at least two of the acquireddocuments; determining, by the processor, a search keyword based on thecommonly appearing keywords, the determined search keyword beingassociated with at least one topic related to the location information;providing, to the user terminal, at least one search query associatedwith the determined search keyword based on the match between thereceived image and the at least one of the plurality of stored imageswhen the match is detected, and based on the commonly appearing keywordswhen no match is detected based on the match determination, wherein theat least one search query associated with the determined search keywordbased on the commonly appearing keywords is used to search foradditional information about the at least one topic in a search engine;displaying, on a display of the user terminal, the at least one searchquery, and enabling a user of the user terminal to select one of the atleast one search query displayed on the display for a search conductedin the search engine, without the user entering a search keyword in textin the user terminal; receiving a search query selected by the user fromthe provided at least one search query; and providing lower searchqueries corresponding to the selected search query; wherein the at leastone search query associated with the determined search keyword based onthe detection of the match or on the commonly appearing keywordscomprises a real-time rush keyword corresponding to the determinedsearch keyword based on the detection of the match or on the commonlyappearing keywords.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining thesearch keyword based on the detection of the match comprises determiningthe search keyword using a tag of the at least one of the plurality ofstored images matched with the received image.
 3. The method of claim 1,wherein determining the at least one search keyword based on thecommonly appearing keywords comprises: counting a number of the acquireddocuments having the commonly appearing keywords for each of thecommonly appearing keywords; and determining, as the search keyword, acommonly appearing keyword appearing in the highest counted number ofacquired documents.
 4. A system to provide a search query, the systemcomprising: a storage device; and a processor for executing functions ofa plurality of function units stored in the storage device, the functionunits including, an image receiving unit configured to receive at leastone image from a user terminal; an image detection unit for comparingthe at least one image with a plurality of stored images, anddetermining whether there is a match between the received image and atleast one of the plurality of stored images; a determination unitconfigured to determine a first search keyword when the match isdetected between the received image and the at least one of theplurality of stored images based on the match determination by the imagedetection unit; a document acquisition unit for receiving locationinformation of the user terminal when no match is detected between thereceived image and the at least one of the plurality of stored imagesafter the match determination by the image detection unit, and acquiringtextual documents uploaded by users of other terminals located within areference distance from the user terminal based on the received locationinformation; a common keyword detection unit configured to detectkeywords commonly appearing at least a predetermined number of times ineach of at least two of the acquired documents; wherein thedetermination unit is further configured to determine a second searchkeyword based on the commonly appearing keywords when no match isdetected based on the match determination, the determined second searchkeyword being associated with at least one topic related to the locationinformation; and a query providing unit configured to provide at leastone search query associated with the determined first or second searchkeyword, the at least one search query associated with the second searchkeyword being determined and used to search for additional informationabout the at least one topic in a search engine; wherein the at leastone search query is displayed on a display of the user terminal andenables a user of the user terminal to select one of the at least onesearch query displayed on the display for a search conducted in thesearch engine, without the user entering a search keyword in text in theuser terminal; wherein the query providing unit is configured to receivea search query selected at the user terminal by the user from theprovided at least one search query, and to provide lower search queriescorresponding to the received selected search query; and wherein thequery providing unit is configured to provide at least one real-timerush search query corresponding to the determined at least one of thefirst and second search keywords.
 5. The system of claim 4, wherein thedetermination unit is configured to determine the first search keywordbased on the detection of the match, using a tag of the at least one ofthe plurality of stored images matched with the received image.
 6. Thesystem of claim 5, further comprising: a counting unit configured tocount a number of the acquired documents having the commonly appearingkeywords for each of the commonly appearing keywords; wherein thedetermination unit is configured to determine, as the second searchkeyword, a keyword appearing in a highest number of documents.